Many types of bowling lane maintenance machines have been developed for the purpose of applying bowling lane dressing to a bowling alley in a predetermined lateral pattern across the alley. In many cases, the apparatus which was developed was done so in response to rules laid down by the American Bowling Congress. As these rules have changed, different lane maintenance machines, which will better accommodate new rules, have been developed. Under current rules, virtually any lane dressing application pattern is permissible. Therefore, it is desirable to have a lane maintenance machine which can put lane dressing down across an alley in virtually any desired pattern. Prior art devices have been developed which provide some variation in the application of the oil pattern across the bowling lane, but none provide complete versatility.
Ingermann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,884 provides an oil transfer device for transferring lane dressing from a reservoir to an applicator roller. The device includes pressure fingers which can be adjusted to vary the amount of oil transferred from the reservoir to a transfer roller by a wick. For any given pressure across the transfer roller, the amount of oil applied from the transfer roller to the applicator roller is strictly a function of the speed of the transfer roller.
Davis U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,815 discloses a lane maintenance machine which has a plurality of discharged heads which are each movable laterally across a portion of the apparatus and each discharge head includes a discharge pencil for discharging a predetermined amount of lane dressing onto the transfer roller as the discharge head moves across a portion of the apparatus. This device is intended to provide precise control of application of lane dressing to each portion of the transfer roller and to provide controlled variable amounts of lane dressing across each portion. However, it cannot vary the amount of lane dressing incrementally from one board of the bowling alley to the next.
Ingermann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,277 provides a variable speed transfer roller for applying lane dressing from the reservoir to the applicator roller. By varying the speed of the transfer roller, the amount of dressing applied across the applicator roller can also be varied. However, the change is uniform clear across the applicator roller and hence across the bowling lane.
Davis U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,290 discloses an apparatus for applying lane dressing in which the reservoir has a plurality of wicks extending from the top thereof each of which can be selectively controlled to bring them into and out of contact with the transfer roller to apply lane dressing selectively across a distance equal to the width of each wick. This apparatus is suitable for its intended purpose but does not provide for separate application of lane dressing in predetermined amounts to each board across a bowling lane.
Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,728 discloses an apparatus which has a segmented transfer roller wherein each segment can be driven at different speeds. By varying the speed of the different segments, different amounts of lane dressing can be applied across different portions of the bowling alley. This apparatus is also suitable for its intended purpose but does not provide means for selectively varying the lane dressing on each board across a bowling lane.
Smith et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,871 discloses an apparatus which has a segmented transfer roller with a plurality of roller segments. A plurality of pivotally mounted reservoirs are provided, one reservoir corresponding in length with each roller segment and being mounted for pivotal movement to bring its wick into and out of operative contact with the respective roller segments. This arrangement provides more possible variations in the application of lane dressing to a bowling lane but still does not permit the application of different amounts of lane dressing to each individual board.